Stream It Or Skip It: ‘La Narcosatanica’ on Max, A Docuseries About A Murderous Drug Dealer/Cult Leader And His Followers In 1980s Mexico

The three-part Max docuseries La Narcosatanica explores the ghastly story of drug dealer and serial killer Adolfo Constanzo, who murdered at least 16 and possibly nearly 20 people throughout Mexico as the leader of a religious cult that practiced human sacrifice. Constanzo died in 1989 while on the run from authorities. But his cult’s incarcerated high priestess is interviewed extensively for La Narcosatanica, as are the law enforcement personnel and journalists who either pursued “The Godfather” or reported on his crimes.   

LA NARCOSATANICA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: At Tepepan Women’s Prison in Mexico City, Sara Aldrete makes a phone call to her sister. “Listen, they’re reviewing my case so I can get early parole. But don’t start celebrating yet. Let’s just wait. It’s a matter of time.”

The Gist: In 1989, after an American college student named Mark Kilroy disappeared while barhopping with his friends in the Texas border town of Matamoros, Mexico, his horribly mutilated body was uncovered from a mass grave on a ranch outside the city. The gruesome discovery revealed the murderous practices of a man named Adolfo Constanzo, who had combined the trafficking of drugs like cocaine and marijuana with his practice of Santeria and Palo Mayombe – religions of the African diaspora that involve animal sacrifice – and formed a cult around himself that included numerous men and at least one woman. Constanzo, its ruthless and undisputed leader, was known as “El Padrino,” The Godfather. And Sara Aldrete was “La Madrina,” The Godmother. 

Tried and convicted in 1989 for murdering and dismembering 13 people, it feels like a longshot that Aldrete will ever get out, despite her lobbying of the parole board. And in jailhouse interviews for La Narcosatanica, she presents herself as a model inmate – good behavior, a teacher in the prison, etc. – who nevertheless becomes wistful at the thought of her time with Constanzo, when she was in her early 20s. “Santeria is a religion that came from Africa to Haiti and Cuba, a cult of deities,” she says. (Constanzo was a Cuban-American indoctrinated into the practices as a child.) “[Adolfo] taught me about Elegguá, ‘the one who opens paths.’ I felt attracted to the unknown, to all the things related to this magic…”

Things like drug dealing, kidnapping and murder. “‘The Godfather asked us to run that wire through his bones, through his spinal cord, so we could later pull it out and make a necklace,’” former Brownsville sheriff’s department investigator George Gavito recalls one of Aldrete and Constanzo’s accomplices saying about Kilroy’s body. And Aldrete’s memories of Constanzo are of a man who fascinated her with his sworn powers – black masses, ritualism, drawing power from the dead, and later transitioning from animal to human sacrifice – but also instilled fear in his followers. It’s classic cult leader stuff, cut with the horrifying facts of his actions. Worse yet, his cult activities seem to have been supported or even endorsed by corrupt Mexican officials.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In the Netflix docuseries My Encounter With Evil, three women describe their experiences with demonic possession in Mexico. And in the six-part series The Anarchists (Max) a filmmaker documents the emerging chaos at the heart of an Acapulco-based anarchist group.

Our Take: As a journalist describes it in La Narcosatanica, the panic that surged in Matamoros once the mass graves of The Godfather’s cult were discovered was palpable, with businesses closing early and people staying off the streets, fearing for their lives. But, he says, it also sold lots of newspapers. “People were fascinated with witchcraft and the occult.” And that’s a sentiment that still rings true today, especially when combined with elements of true crime, as the three-part docuseries La Narcosatanica does. Episode one of the series, or its first chapter, is entitled “The Witch Doctor’s Apprentice,” and Sara Aldrete proves to be an interesting interview, even if the convicted mass murderer’s attempts at parole feel completely delusional. Aldrete describes how she willingly bowed to Constanzo’s persuasion, and how the other members of El Padrino’s cult came under his spell, even as his practice of Palo Mayombe escalated from the ritualistic killing of animals to the murder of human beings. “Adolfo had transformed,” she remembers. With his nostrils flaring and his pupils rolling back in head, “he was our healer.” But just as quickly he returned to normal. “Everyone in that room saw this. And if they’re still around, if they see this, they’ll know what I’m talking about. They all participated.” It’s a captivating if scary look inside cults of personality and the allure of religiosity, all of it immersed in the bloody details of the true crime genre.   

Sex and Skin: Nothing sexually explicit in the first episode, but lots of awful news footage of corpses being exhumed from mass graves at Adolfo Constanzo’s ranch/cult headquarters.

Parting Shot: Sara Aldrete describes an incident with one of his followers who strayed from Constanzo’s sworn rules, and which only solidified his hold over them. “He said ‘Give me your gun. Do you want to see what happens to people who don’t obey me?’” She pauses, becoming emotional. “The impact of the bullet…the blood on the wall…it wasn’t just respect anymore. It was fear. A very profound fear.”

Sleeper Star: Former La Prensa newspaper journalist Humberto Huerta highlights the links between Adolfo’s occult practices and the money he was making from moving illicit drugs. “In this country, drug trafficking wouldn’t function if the police weren’t involved in it,” Huerta says. Not only that, but Adolfo could use his supposed powers to influence powerful law enforcement officials, since they all believed in it. The journalist ticks off a few names from federal police and intelligence agencies at the time, all of whom believed in the protection Adolfo offered. “They all believed in this witchcraft.”

Most Pilot-y Line: It might be a window into her own psyche that it only took a random encounter with Adolfo Constanza for Sara Aldrete to join his circle. In 1987 he leaned on her car window, necklaces dangling, and their relationship began. “‘My religion,’ she remembers the serial killer telling her about his neckwear. “‘I’m a witch doctor.’”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Told largely through the eyes of an imprisoned woman he once called his La Madrina, La Narcosatanica is a compelling if often unsettling look at the magnetic pull of El Padrino, Adolfo Constanza, a serial killer guided by his twisted religious beliefs.  

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges